National Football Foundation gives out $16,000 in scholarships, wants to keep growing

Eleven finalists, one from each Collier County high school team, for the National Football Foundation scholarship enter a banquet honoring them at The Restaurant at Quail Village Golf Club On Monday, April 16, 2018.
Adam Fisher/Naples Daily News

After working with the National Football Foundation for 48 years then seeing how much Naples loves the high school game, Matt Sellitto knew a local chapter of the historic organization would do well.

Sellitto just didn’t expect the Collier County chapter to take off as quickly as it has.

Instead of giving out a $1,000 scholarship to one Collier County senior in its first year, as the it planned to do, the newest NFF chapter recently doled out $16,000 in college money to four graduating high school football players.

“It’s amazing the people that have come out from the community to support us,” said Sellitto, president of the Collier County chapter. “It’s heart-warming.”

The National Football Foundation, created in 1947 to use amateur football to promote academics and citizenship, holds scholarship banquets at all 120 chapters around the country. Thanks to a sold-out inaugural banquet and donations, the Collier County chapter was able to raise more money than it could have imagined.

The largest prize, announced recently, was a $10,000 scholarship given to Golden Gate High School senior Anthony Robinson. The scholarship recipient was not announced at the April 16 banquet so as to keep the focus on the 11 finalists – one from each Collier County high school football team – rather than the overall winner.

Golden Gate High School's Anthony Robinson won the National Football Foundation Collier County Chapter's Joanne and George Downing Career Building Scholarship worth $10,000. Here is poses with chapter president Matt Sellitto.(Photo: Submitted)

The award was funded by part-time Naples resident George Downing and will be called the Joanne and George Downing Career Building Scholarship.

The scholarship puts NFF in line with the Winged Foot Scholar-Athlete Award, a 29-year-old organization which also gives out $10,000 to a Collier County senior each year.

“I was amazed,” chapter secretary Tom Stuart said. “I didn’t think this thing would be this good this fast. It made us feel good, that all the hard work supporting these student-athletes is not in vain.”

Robinson, a cornerback, will play at Division III Ithaca College next year. He will receive $2,500 a year for four years, contingent on maintaining at least a 2.5 grade-point average.

Brenden Howard, a senior captain and two-way starter at Marco Island Academy last season, received the Matthew C. Sellitto Scholarship from the NFF, worth $1,000 a year for four years ($4,000 total). Howard will attend Florida Gulf Coast University.

The local NFF chapter also gave out two one-time $1,000 scholarships. Immokalee kicker Elias Cuevas and St. John Neumann linebacker Will Glasser each received the awards, called the Jonathan D. Sellitto Scholarship.

Immokalee High School senior Elias Cuevas won the Jonathan D. Sellitto Scholarship, worth $1,000, from the National Football Foundation Collier County Chapter. Cuevas (left) stands where with NFF chapter secretary Tom Stuart.(Photo: Submitted)

The ultimate goal of the NFF’s Collier chapter is to provide a scholarship for every finalist. Sellitto said the group also would like to expand into Lee County and make it a true Southwest Florida chapter.

To expand – geographically and monetarily – the chapter needs a corporate sponsor for its banquet.

Sellitto first began working with the NFF in 1970 with the Essex County, New Jersey, chapter. In 1995, he created the Morris County chapter, which puts on a banquet for finalists from 38 high schools and hands out 11 scholarships.

Sellitto’s New Jersey chapter sustains the banquet and the scholarships thanks to the support of title sponsor of Atlantic Health System. The Collier County chapter ran its banquet thanks to seed money from the New Jersey chapter, but now Sellitto said it needs to support itself.

“Once we’ve run our first dinner, each (new) chapter continues because the local community finds it worthy enough to support it in the future,” Sellitto said. “I think we’ve proven we are worthy enough.

St. John Neumann senior Will Glasser (left) stands with National Football Foundation Collier County Chapter president Matt Sellitto with a check for the $1,000 Jonathan D. Sellitto Schoalrship. Glasser won the award from the NFF local chapter.(Photo: Submitted)

“Naples has too much integrity not to have a local sponsor. Naples doesn’t need New Jersey money.”

The foundation had to turn people away from its inaugural banquet in April. One hundred people attended in a room fit for 90. The organizers plan to accommodate around 125 at next year's banquet, already scheduled for Feb. 25 at Kensington Country Club.

The support of donors thus far has been a blessing for Robinson. The child of a single mother, Robinson has four younger brothers and a sister already in college.

He received some academic scholarships to Ithaca, which doesn’t give athletic scholarships, and earned $5,000 as Golden Gate’s Winged-Foot Finalist. While those cover a large chunk of his tuition, there still are living expenses and travel expenses related to college that the Downing scholarship will help cover.

“I was shocked. My mom was emotional,” Robinson said about the award. “It’s very humbling. People noticed the work hard I’ve put in. It’s an amazing feeling and I’m very thankful.”